The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also correspond to embodiments of the claimed inventions.
Conventional solutions exist in the marketplace today for establishing communications between two parties, such as WebEx Communications Inc. as the provider of “WebEx,” and also FaceTime by Apple Inc.
WebEx applications are built on the MediaTone platform intended to operate as a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform for online collaboration such as discussion forums, document sharing and calendaring, instant-messaging, and conferencing tools.
FaceTime provides videotelephony services for iOS and Macintosh computers. FaceTime is incompatible with non-Apple devices and is incompatible with any other video calling services. FaceTime provides videotelephony call initiation through integration with existing contacts within a contacts application installed concurrently on such devices and supports connections through WiFi and cellular networks (3G or LTE) subject to the carrier's discretion so long as the videotelephony call is placed to a phone number or email address that is registered to the FaceTime service. On iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac devices it is necessary to add a person as a contact using the FaceTime or Contacts app before the videotelephony call may be initiated.
The problem with such conventional solutions, both WebEx and FaceTime, is that a user is required to set up meeting number and ID in advance with a contact person that is already known and available within a contacts list or other such source. The pre-arrangement requirement creates additional steps and complexity in addition to consuming time and the requirement that a contact person already be known fully negates the feasibility of interacting with an unknown target contact. While such a feature may seem counter-intuitive it may nevertheless be beneficial to users within the certain contexts.
Further still, conventional solutions such as WebEx and FaceTime require additional routing by the user through an alternate communication means, typically this entails the user sending an invitation to another contact via email. Such a requirement again adds steps, complexity, and consumes time.
The present state of the art may therefore benefit from the systems, methods, and apparatuses for implementing instant social image cobrowsing through the cloud as described herein.